Could you guys critique my Luigi as well?

[Freeroller]

I just recently started playing Luigi going to my first tournament with him as my main. I'm wondering if you guys could give me some advice on my Luigi, as I clearly have a lot of work to do haha. I know I have some bad habits, such as rolling too much and doing AAA instead of A--> Up B or A --> Grab etc. All my matches in the tournament were close, though, and I did make it into the brackets, but there's another tournament coming up at the beginning of May and I'd like to get rid of any more bad habits I have.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqYghYLh76o

PS. I pretty much got absolutely ***** by ZSS in the losers bracket so if you have any general tips against this matchup it would be appreciated (Didn't see her done yet in the MU thread).

PPS. I've only faced a very restricted set of characters with my Luigi so far (DK, ZSS, Ike, MK, Samus, Ganon), so I understand that I still need more experience against people in order to do well by understanding how each character plays.

Thanks for any and all help! Sorry for wall of text.

 

[ScAtt77]

Hm... Honestly your Luigi isn't that bad other than the glaring things that you already pointed out.

-Using AAA isn't necessarily a bad thing, but yeah you should mix it up more.
- The main thing that your lacking is Luigi air game. Use b-air to space a bit better too. DK is huge combo fodder. Abuse Luigi's aerials
-Never us side-b on stage.
-Be careful about your cyclone usage. Don't use it from across the stage because your opponent will catch on eventually.

 

[Jdietz43]

Text wall? Nah, you barely said anything. Here's a real text wall... probably best to take this in a few tips at a time.

-I didn't see really any aerial approaching. It's a staple of Luigi's metagame and you'd benefit from becoming comfortable with it. RAR Bair can be your best friend in most matchups.
-Aerial strings are your main source of damage dealing, I saw slim pickings in the air.
-It's good to see you using Fireballs, most Luigi's seem to forget they have that option. Keep that how it is.
-In both matches your initial approach was Fireball>Cyclone. Simply don't, Cyclone is a good move but don't attempt to use it to follow a fireball, they'll sheild or jump and neither of those things can be dealt with properly with a Cyclone, aerials make for better followups and combo situations and are far less punishable.
-Use Cyclone to recover, and to approach when your opponent backs off to reset spacing and thinks he/she is out of your range. Cyclone can start combos but it shouldn't be used to continue them.
-Dthrow is great at low percents to start aerial strings. Bthrow or Fthrow after 50% and up. I saw you do the inverse in the matches, just slow down and let your mind catch up to your fingers if you have to.
-SideB on stage hurts far more than it helps.
-Don't rush your recovery, its more about getting to the stage safely then getting there quickly. 2 kills were arguably avoidable if you waited a tad longer to start your recovery. UpB doesn't sweetspot the ledge until you're quite a distace away fyi.

All this sounds nitpicky I'm sure but if you can take just a little away from it, you should improve a bit. Most of this knowledge just comes with practice and time. (Re)Reading some of the (rather old) Luigi guides may also help you. Good luck.

 

[Freeroller]

Hm... Honestly your Luigi isn't that bad other than the glaring things that you already pointed out.

-Using AAA isn't necessarily a bad thing, but yeah you should mix it up more.
- The main thing that your lacking is Luigi air game. Use b-air to space a bit better too. DK is huge combo fodder. Abuse Luigi's aerials
-Never us side-b on stage.
-Be careful about your cyclone usage. Don't use it from across the stage because your opponent will catch on eventually.

Thanks for the critiquing! A few questions/comments:

-When I want to do Jab --> Grab or something along those lines, do I have to buffer it?
-When should I be using downsmash and downtilt? Are they viable options on certain chars? (Maybe Jab --> Dsmash at low %?)
-I kept using Side-B by accident when I was trying to turn the other way and fireball, lol.

Text wall? Nah, you barely said anything. Here's a real text wall... probably best to take this in a few tips at a time.

-I didn't see really any aerial approaching. It's a staple of Luigi's metagame and you'd benefit from becoming comfortable with it. RAR Bair can be your best friend in most matchups.
-Aerial strings are your main source of damage dealing, I saw slim pickings in the air.
-It's good to see you using Fireballs, most Luigi's seem to forget they have that option. Keep that how it is.
-In both matches your initial approach was Fireball>Cyclone. Simply don't, Cyclone is a good move but don't attempt to use it to follow a fireball, they'll sheild or jump and neither of those things can be dealt with properly with a Cyclone, aerials make for better followups and combo situations and are far less punishable.
-Use Cyclone to recover, and to approach when your opponent backs off to reset spacing and thinks he/she is out of your range. Cyclone can start combos but it shouldn't be used to continue them.
-Dthrow is great at low percents to start aerial strings. Bthrow or Fthrow after 50% and up. I saw you do the inverse in the matches, just slow down and let your mind catch up to your fingers if you have to.
-SideB on stage hurts far more than it helps.
-Don't rush your recovery, its more about getting to the stage safely then getting there quickly. 2 kills were arguably avoidable if you waited a tad longer to start your recovery. UpB doesn't sweetspot the ledge until you're quite a distace away fyi.

All this sounds nitpicky I'm sure but if you can take just a little away from it, you should improve a bit. Most of this knowledge just comes with practice and time. (Re)Reading some of the (rather old) Luigi guides may also help you. Good luck.

Thank you very much for the very in-depth critique and pointers. I kept using side-B by accident. For the recovery part, I always feel very vulnerable when I'm under the stage, which I understand isn't a good thing to feel as a Luigi. So because of that I try to get back above stage ASAP. For aerial strings I was really hesitant to get into the air because he'd keep Dairing me and then grabbing me and slapping me into the ground, or carrying me off the edge and throwing me into the stage and stage spiking me.

I do appreciate the little tips and tricks you told me (dthrow aerial string/same amount of fireballs/etc.) and I appreciate the nitpicking, it'll help my game for sure!

Also it looked like a wall of text when I typed it out >.<.

 

[Jdietz43]

Yeah no problem, I like to feel helpful (sometimes a rare trait on the Luigi boards lol).

Most of the stuff will come only after experience like not Side B'ing by accident, and executing aerial strings without being caught in a Dair etc.

Some other things I thought of later (it's hard to sum up character basics in just a few bullet points lol) was if you feel too gimpable go for a high recovery instead, just use a rising cyclone straight out of your momentum cancel, then fall back to the stage instead of the other way around. Also Utilt>Utilt>Utilt... is good in the same way Dthrow is at low percents, especially on fast fallers.

Rolling with your comments from the other guy (sorry for stealing the response from under your nose Scatt77 in case you cared) you can't truly buffer Jab>Grab since it will start Jab 2 if you try, but you shouldn't have too much trouble once you get the timing of when the Jab naturally wears out, though it won't usually be a true combo or anything. Jab>Dsmash at low percents is viable (but trying too early with the C-stick will make you use Jab 2 instead so be mindful) and Dsmash is generally a good move on its own merit, especially because Luigi's low traction means you can almost hyphen smash it just by walking and doing the Dsmash. Dtilt is almost never good though, and is basically only ever useful for gimping though platforms but is usually out shined by the Dtaunt spike. The only real thing of note is it trips regularly but good luck hitting anyone with it... ever.

I'd link a vid of me for demonstration purposes but that would seem too self serving, so heres a vid of YoshQ, whom I can personally testify the greatness of, against Bo X7 who is also ridiculous. Pay attention to how the match goes from the beginning up until about 0:45 where YoshQ loses his form because its a friendly.:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFfxjcAtBpM

Note:
-How fast 7% becomes 53% from Dthrow>Utilt chain with just a little platform assistance
-How beneficial Bair can be with just a little spacing (or in this case clashing, its all good for Luigi)
-No rush recovery (even though he kind of flubs it he doesn't get gimped)
-Use of DownB to keep Bo X7 from getting proper spacing with just a little pressure, but also note that it failed to keep his string going after the Uairs earlier. DownB takes experience to know how to use at its maximum.

Yosh doesn't really shine particularly in this one but giving his various vids a once over can't hurt (probably).

I'm done meddling and will leave this topic to other people now I swear. But explaining things to others is one of the best ways to cement it for myself sometimes.

 

[Freeroller]

Thanks. The tournament is this Saturday. Anyone else have any last minute advice?

 

[JustNoOne]

Freeroller, I'll help you tomorrow, just make sure you spot the person with the Gabumon plush :3

 

[Freeroller]

Freeroller, I'll help you tomorrow, just make sure you spot the person with the Gabumon plush :3

I think we've met before at one of those YORKU wednesday things.

Thanks! I'll be arriving pretty early to get some hefty practice in (Been playing MH3 for the past 2 weeks so I'm mega rusty).